* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Download Lecture 15 (L15): Wu Cheng`en`s The Journey to the West (First Half)
Buddhism and violence wikipedia , lookup
Tara (Buddhism) wikipedia , lookup
Gautama Buddha wikipedia , lookup
Buddhist art wikipedia , lookup
Buddha-nature wikipedia , lookup
Triratna Buddhist Community wikipedia , lookup
Dhyāna in Buddhism wikipedia , lookup
Pratītyasamutpāda wikipedia , lookup
Early Buddhist schools wikipedia , lookup
Buddhist philosophy wikipedia , lookup
Buddhism and psychology wikipedia , lookup
Greco-Buddhism wikipedia , lookup
Persecution of Buddhists wikipedia , lookup
Sanghyang Adi Buddha wikipedia , lookup
History of Buddhism in Cambodia wikipedia , lookup
Korean Buddhism wikipedia , lookup
Buddhism and Hinduism wikipedia , lookup
Buddhist ethics wikipedia , lookup
Buddhism and Western philosophy wikipedia , lookup
Buddhism and sexual orientation wikipedia , lookup
Nirvana (Buddhism) wikipedia , lookup
History of Buddhism wikipedia , lookup
Chinese Buddhism wikipedia , lookup
Dalit Buddhist movement wikipedia , lookup
Buddhism in Japan wikipedia , lookup
History of Buddhism in India wikipedia , lookup
Enlightenment in Buddhism wikipedia , lookup
Buddhism in Vietnam wikipedia , lookup
Decline of Buddhism in the Indian subcontinent wikipedia , lookup
Silk Road transmission of Buddhism wikipedia , lookup
Lecture 15 (L15): Wu Cheng’en’s The Journey to the West (First Half) This lecture focuses on Wu Cheng’en’s The Journey to the West. We will discuss some of the basic features of the book’s plot and authorship, and then we will look at the role religion played in this novel. Contents: I. II. III. Filling in the Details: Plot Gaps and Other Useful Info Authorship and Timeline Buddhism in The Journey to the West I. Filling in the Details: Plot Gaps and Other Useful Info In its unabridged form, The Journey to the West is a very long work totaling over 2,000 pages. You are probably glad that we’re only reading a few short excerpts from this text in our class (totaling about 70 pages). But, one of the problems that comes with only reading excerpts is that we miss a lot of the larger plot and it can be confusing to figure out what happened in the original, longer version. I want to make sure that you have a sense for the larger story in The Journey to the West, and to make sure that you understand how the excerpts in our textbook fit in with the story as a whole. Overall Plot of the Longer Version of The Journey to the West: The novel begins with Monkey’s (aka Pilgrim’s) miraculous birth from a stone egg. Monkey acquires magical powers and becomes ruler of other monkeys at the FlowerFruit Mountain. As Monkey becomes more and more arrogant, he makes trouble in Heaven. None of the deities can subdue him until the god Erh-lang and his brothers come, and with the help of the Daoist Sage Lao Tzu they capture him. Monkey has, however, stolen Lao Tzu’s magic elixir; when they try to execute him, his body proves impervious to everything. At last Monkey is subdued by the Buddha and imprisoned underneath the Mountain of the Five Elements. 500 years later, the Bodhisattva Guanyin travels east to China in search of someone to undertake the pilgrimage to India and fetch the Buddhist scriptures. Xuanzang (aka 1 Tripitaka) is chosen for this task and he gathers 3 disciples: Pilgrim (aka Monkey), Bajie, and Sha Monk. The majority of the novel involves the dangers encountered and overcome along the way as they travel. At the end of the novel, the group reaches India, acquires the scriptures, and is conveniently flown home to China by Buddhist magic. They then return to India to be promoted by the Buddha. Hopefully, knowing the overall story will help you to understand how the excerpts in our textbook fit together. Character names: The character names used in The Journey to the West can also be a source of confusion for readers. Often times, the same characters go by several different names. Here is a list of the main characters and the various names by which they are known. Pilgrim: Monkey, Wukong, the stone monkey, King of the Monkeys, Great Sage, Sun Wukong Bajie: Old hog, Idiot, Pigsy, Zhu Bajie, Coolie, Zhu Wuneng Sha Monk: Shā Wùjìng, Sandy Tripitaka: Xuanzang, master, Tang Sanzang Locations: Where are the travelers going in their journey to the “west”? India Where do they begin their travels? China Here is a map (see right) that should give you a good sense for their travels. 2 II. Authorship and Timeline Authorship We need to be careful when we say that The Journey to the West is “authored by” Wu Cheng-en. While most scholars agree that Wu Cheng-en was responsible for the book’s final form, he wasn’t responsible for coming up with the story on his own. In truth, The Journey to the West is really the product of many retellings by many storytellers over many years. In fact, prior to the eighteenth century, very few writers wanted to have their names associated with prose fiction. Prose fiction, as a genre, was considered low status. So, many authors opted to publish their work under pseudonyms instead of under their real names. This poses a problem for literary scholars today, who have a hard time figuring out which real-life author is associated with which pseudonym. In the case of The Journey to the West, we still don’t know who should get credit for each of its parts. Thus, when we say that Wu Cheng’en is the author of this novel, we really mean that he is one of many authors of the novel, and that he probably authored the largest part of it. Timeline Wu Cheng-en lived from approximately 1500 to 1582 CE. Yet, the novel focuses on past, historical events from the time in which Xuanzang lived (596-664 CE). So, we need to keep in mind that Wu Cheng-en was writing about historical events that took place about nine centuries before his own era. Again, Xuanzang was a real person who actually traveled from China to India to acquire Buddhist scriptures. That part of the story is true. However, Wu Cheng-en invents much of the rest of the story, creating and embellishing magical characters and deities who help Xuanzang along the way. III. Buddhism Buddhism Generally Buddhism is often labeled a “philosophy” more than a “religion.” This is because Buddhists do not believe in a personal god. Even the Buddha was not believed to be a deity; he was believed to be a man who achieved enlightenment. He is thought to be someone who should be emulated rather than worshipped. Siddhartha Gautama is the 3 name of the man who came to be known as the Buddha once he achieved enlightenment (he is also known by the name "Tathagata"). Buddhists believe in reincarnation. That is, when a person dies, that person will be reborn as someone else. The person could be reborn as anything from a lowly ant to the king of England. This endless cycle of birth and rebirth, into which all beings are born, is called samsara. So, how is it decided whether one is reborn as an ant or as a king? Well, Buddhists believe that this is not a matter of chance or luck. Instead, our positions after rebirth are determined by karma. Karma is the idea that if one lives a “good” life, then one earns good karma, and one will be rewarded in their next life with more comfort or ease. On the other hand, if one lives a wicked life, one will be demoted (so to speak), and one will be reborn in a lower position. In fact, if you lead a very wicked life, you will move down not just one or two stations in your next life, but you may be demoted so severely that it would take hundreds of rebirths to return to your prior station. As a general rule, Buddhists believe that one’s place in this world (for instance, as a rat, a deer, a beggar, or a king) is a direct result of one’s behavior in previous lives. In the West, we might think that this idea of samsara sounds exciting and positive. After all, who wouldn’t want another chance at living after one dies? But, Buddhists believe that life is suffering (since we can never fully satisfy our earthly desires), and they believe that samsara is something we should all seek to escape. It is, thus, the ultimate goal of Buddhists to escape samsara (to break out of the cycle of birth and rebirth). This breaking of the cycle and escaping samsara is call reaching “nirvana.” So, Buddhists follow the example of Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) in their quests to reach a state of nirvana (which breaks the cycle of reincarnation). In order to reach nirvana, Buddhists emulate the Buddha: they lead highly-moral lives, they practice meditation, and they cultivate wisdom. Bodhisattvas Where does the Bodhisattva Guanyin fit in with all of this? After all, she is a very powerful figure in The Journey to the West. Has she reached nirvana? The answer is, surprisingly, no. A Bodhisattva is a being that is so concerned with helping others, that 4 s/he refuses to enter a state of nirvana until every other being has also entered a state of nirvana. In other words, a Bodhisattva is so selfless that even though s/he could enter a state of nirvana, she postpones doing so in an effort to help others attain nirvana. Thus, Guanyin is a highly selfless and compassionate figure, and she is one of the most well-known Bodhisattvas in the Buddhist tradition. IV. Buddhism in The Journey to the West Buddhism plays an important part in The Journey to the West. Notice all the places where Buddhism is assumed or discussed. For instance, Buddhas are mentioned as immortal beings in chapter 1; the conflict between Buddhism and Confucianism is debated in chapter 12; the divisions within Buddhism (between “Little Vehicle” and “Great Vehicle” Buddhism) are discussed in chapter 12; the conflict between Buddhists and Daoists is the focus of chapters 44 and 46; the Buddha is encountered as a character in chapter 98; and Pilgrim and Tripitaka are promoted to being Buddhas themselves in chapter 100. There are many more examples of Buddhism being promoted and discussed in this novel, and you should be able to point them out as you read. Conflicts between Buddhism and Confucianism At the time Wu Cheng’en was writing, China had three major religions: Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism. These religions were not mutually exclusive. That is, one could practice more than one of them or even all three. Thus, many Chinese respected and practiced more than one. Other times, however, there were conflicts between two or more of the three major religions, and this is precisely what we see in chapter 12. In order to understand the nature of the conflict seen in chapter 12 between Buddhism and Confucianism, we need to understand the basics of Confucianism. Like Buddhism, Confucianism is sometimes labeled a “philosophy” rather than a “religion.” This is because Confucianism doesn’t discuss gods, supernatural beliefs, etc. On the other 5 hand, the reason it is often called a religion is that even though these beliefs don’t involve gods or deities, they have become sacred over time. People have worshipped Confucius and his teachings, and there are many Confucian temples in China. Thus, because Confucius’s teachings are seen as sacred, many scholars classify Confucianism as a religion. Confucianism is based on the teachings of Confucius, who lived in China from 551 to 479 BCE. Confucius laid out some very practical advice about how one should live one’s life. In a nutshell, Confucius argued that we should all aim for a moral/virtuous life, intellectual understanding, and harmony with people around us. As one scholar (Kelley L. Ross) puts it, “Confucius himself had a simple moral and political teaching: to love others, to honor one’s parents; to do what is right instead of what is of advantage; to practice ‘reciprocity,’ i.e. ‘don’t do to others what you would not want yourself’; to rule by moral example instead of by force and violence; and so forth.” Confucius also claimed that it was very important for everyone in society to know their place within the social hierarchy. For instance, he thought it was important for children to obey their parents and for wives to obey their husbands. Here are the five key relationships that Confucius emphasized in his teachings: Father – son Elder brother – younger brother Husband – wife Friend – friend Ruler – subject The only one of the above relationships that is equal is the “Friend – friend” relationship. All of the other above relationships give more power to one party. However, we shouldn’t misunderstand Confucius. He certainly didn’t believe that a father had the right to abuse his power over his son, or a husband over his wife. Instead, Confucius claimed that both people in the relationship have responsibilities to the other. It is the father’s responsibility to be compassionate toward his son and to lead his son to moral action. According to Confucius, people must know their place within each relationship and within social order. Exercise: Now that you know a bit about Confucianism, take a look back at the beginning of chapter 12 of The Journey to the West in our book, rereading pages 6 436-438. Then articulate what the conflict is between Buddhism and Confucianism. What is it that the court officials are debating? Can you clarify each side? You should be able to find an example of where Buddhism is said to reject some of the Five Key Relationships advocated in Confucianism. You should be able to find a place where Buddhists are accused of trying to “escape” the cycle of birth and death. You should be able to find a place where Buddhism is accused of being a “foreign” religion that wasn’t present during some of the most successful eras in Chinese history. You should be able to explain how some of the court officials defend Buddhism from the above accusations. You should be able to name some of the accusations leveled against the Buddha personally (and against the way he lived his life). You should be able to explain how this debate is resolved. What does Taizong decide in the end? 7